Do I need, am I able to... and do I even want to change? Which potential does Motivational ...

Do I need, am I able to... and do I even want to change? Which potential does Motivational Interviewing offer for organizations

Authors: Klonek, F.E., Kauffeld, S.

Organizational, team or individual change projects are highly dependent upon the motivation of the affected employees. Motivational Interviewing (MI) offers a promising method to initiate and accompany change management projects. Evidence from clinical psychology shows that MI stimulates change by evoking change talk and reducing sustain talk - two psycholinguistic constructs. In this paper, we want to discuss - based on the existing research and an expert workshop - benefits and possible applications of MI for organizations. By means of three examples from interaction analysis, we can show how coaches, facilitators and executives can implement principles of MI. Finally, we introduce two German versions of MI observation methods that help to objectively assess motivational interaction processes. Preliminary data shows that there is still a lack of motivational techniques within the observed interaction processes.